Today’s Bourbon Drinkers
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Behold He is He is His (Next Here is New He is |
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LEW BRYSON |
The
Future is Now
It’s funny. For
years, bourbon marketers and manufacturers have said that
bourbon drinkers were evolving, that bourbon was reaching
more women, that cocktails were becoming more popular – and
bourbon sales kept slowly declining. (Please note: whenever
I say “bourbon”, just say to yourself “American straight
whiskey”. We can save time that way.) Now, all of a sudden,
the future is here and now.
What happened?
Some of it is more like what didn’t happen before. “I don’t
think the bourbon industry has a particularly laudable
record in terms of positioning ourselves for growth, of
putting ourselves in positions of esteem, until the last ten
years,” said Larry Kass, director of corporate
communications at Heaven Hill Distillery. “Closing and
re-opening for Prohibition and World War II, and changes in
consumers’ tastes taking them away from American whiskey,
none of that helped. But it’s all clicking now for the
category, unlike it ever has. This is the absolute heyday of
American whiskey, in any terms.”
That was echoed
by Wayne Rose, brand manager for Woodford Reserve Bourbon.
“I believe the image of bourbon has improved markedly over
the past ten years,” he said, “You can’t pin down a 12 month
trend, but over the past five years or ten years, we’ve done
well for our image. Ten years ago it wasn’t about quality,
or attracting a cocktail culture. It was more about Kentucky
and authenticity and heritage. We weren’t connecting in a
contemporary fashion.”
One of the
brands that showed the way was Maker’s Mark. “Maker’s Mark
is a unique brand,” acknowledged Sam Seiller, the brand
manager. “It has always looked outside the category; outside
the spirits category, in fact, not just outside the bourbon
category. Bill Samuels, Senior made it as a wheat-based
bourbon, which was right outside the norm. That kind of
going outside to make it what you want has carried the
brand. Creating conversation, the buzz, has always come
first with Maker’s Mark. People feel a more personal
connection, their loyalty lasts.”
That’s the kind
of thinking that built Maker’s fast: “Maker’s Mark has shown
double-digit growth over the past 2O years,” said Seiller.
But Seiller is proof that insiders can still think outside:
she’s also the brand manager for Knob Creek. In case you
missed it in the flurry of brand changes when Pernod Ricard
bought Allied Domecq, Maker’s Mark is now part of Beam
Global Spirits and Wine: Jim Beam.
Is that going to
change anything? Heh. Do you really think Beam is dumb
enough to mess with success? “It’s been a completely
transparent switch,” said Seiller. “Maker’s Mark has been
kept so separate that we even have separate trucks that are
not marked ‘Beam Global’. Otherwise, they wouldn’t let them
on the property. Maker’s Mark is such a unique brand and
company, and they’ve led the category for years. We’ve
learned a lot from them already. The POS will look and feel
the same. And as far as production and the actual product
goes, you will never see any difference.”
Growth
Pressures
Maker’s is the
high end of the premium section of bourbon, verging on what
is now being called ‘super-premium’: the small batches and
single barrel brands, like Knob Creek, Woodford Reserve,
Evan Williams Single Barrel, Gentleman Jack.
Buffalo Trace is
making their future there. “It’s the premium sector that’s
growing,” said Kris Comstock, the distillery’s bourbon brand
manager. “There’s renewed interest in high-quality bourbon,
and we’re getting lots of press on our quality. Our Eagle
Rare single barrel has doubled sales each of the last three
years, and we’re getting distribution in new states;
Massachusetts just started with it a year and a half ago.
There are markets we can’t supply our regular Buffalo Trace
bourbon to, and they’re grabbing Eagle Rare – $3O for single
barrel ten-year-old is not bad. That’s one of the stars in
the portfolio. In fact, our inventory of ten-year-old Eagle
Rare has to be watched, it’s selling so fast.”
Wild Turkey
distillery operations director Greg Snyder told me that he
was making moves to cover that kind of growth. “We’re
investing capital dollars to increase our production
capacity,” he said. “Wild Turkey is aged longer than most
bourbons, so we have to look out 12 years and beyond. The
forecasts are extremely strong. So we have to get the budget
in line to be ready in 12 years. We’re putting in equipment
for expanded distillation, more fermenters, that kind of
thing, and additional barrel warehouses. We just built two
new ones this year. We’re hitting it, all right. We’re in
our summer shut-down right now, doing maintenance, but once
September comes, we’ll be running hard and cranking it
out.”
“It’s a great
and terrible time,” said Heaven Hill’s Kass, “it’s the
pressure of success. The bulk bourbon market is as tight as
I’ve ever seen it, and the only thing tighter than that is
the bulk rye market. This is the nature of the beast: you
produce based on predictions. If your growth curve goes up
early, you scramble. We’re producing heavily right now. The
stock situation will ease up considerably in three or four
years. You had people who weren’t running that hard, and now
they’re running as hard as they can.”
Kass was
responding to a question about the new label on Heaven
Hill’s Evan Williams bourbon, the one that used to say
Seven-Years-Old. “We took the age statement off,” he
acknowledged. “Our master distillers, Parker and Craig Beam,
wanted a bit more flexibility with the formula. The bulk
bourbon market has always been an important part of this
category, and if we got good five-year-old, why not put it
in? We were not going to subordinate the taste profile of
Evan Williams just to keep the age statement on there. We
also sold a lot of 7-year-old whiskey in the international
market.”
Brian Addison is
the brand director for Jim Beam and Jim Beam Black. As you
might expect, a big place like Beam’s got plenty of whiskey
prepared. “The growth has been positive, but nothing we
couldn’t anticipate from a supply chain standpoint,” he
said. He did admit that it takes planning. “That’s another
difference between vodka and bourbon. With vodka, you just
kind of open the faucet a bit more; bourbon you’ve got to
look ahead a bit.
“We’re seeing
bourbon continue to grow,” he said. “It’s on an upswing, in
the US and world-wide, driven by the premium and even more
so the super-premium brands, similar to other categories. We
don’t intend for Beam to be left behind. The trend is for
the super-premiums to grow, and we’re happy to be
along.”
Up
and Comers
Obviously,
Addison’s main money-maker is Jim Beam white label, the
four- year-old powerhouse that is the world’s best-selling
bourbon. (When I say “bourbon” here, of course, I mean
“bourbon”. Jack Daniel’s is the world’s best-selling
American straight whiskey.) But he’s also got a literal dark
horse: Jim Beam Black, the eight-year-old in the black
label, kind of like the younger whiskey dressed up in formal
clothes. It’s a trade-up, but it’s still a steal at the
average retail price.
“It’s a matter
of getting people to try the Black,” said Addison. “Once
they do, it sells itself. Over the past few years it has
received a concerted marketing push. We’ve seen average
growth of over 2O%, and it’s over 15O,OOO cases a year in
sales. It’s just as big as Knob Creek. It’s motoring along.
Our on-premise business grew upwards of 35%. I’d like to see
that continue to grow; if they try it on-premise, they’ll
pick it up off-premise. If you’re a Beam drinker, you trade
up to Black; a Black drinker may trade up to Maker’s or Knob
Creek.”
Mike Haering is
hoping to get people to trade up to Old Forester Signature,
and it looks like it’s going to work. You may have seen the
whiskey before; the liquid is Old Forester 1OO proof, the
old original. “The 1OO proof won medals for its taste,” said
Haering, Brown-Forman’s Old Forester brand manager, “but
when we offered it to people, they just thought we were
trying to sell them a higher proof. That’s not it. The 1OO
proof is my favorite; I find Old Forester tastes best right
at a mid-9Os proof, so I pour it, and put just a splash in
it.”
If the message
isn’t getting across, change the messenger: Brown-Forman,
having burnished the reputation of Old Forester with the
release of the super-premium Old Forester Birthday Bourbon,
has radically changed the packaging on Old Forester 1OO, now
Old Forester Signature. “This is the original, signature
expression of George Garvin Brown,” said Haering proudly.
“It was American’s first bottled bourbon, it was bottled for
quality control reasons, and it’s got his hand-written
guarantee on it. Look at the last line on that written
guarantee: ‘There is nothing better on the market.’ What
else can you aspire to?”
It seems to be
working, judging from early results. “When we did our first
bottling of this,” said Haering, “a normal production run,
which would usually last three months, it sold out
immediately. And we’re running out of this new bottling just
as quickly. The personality is much better.”
Jason Nussbaum
is the global marketing manager for Wild Turkey, and sees
the same power of packaging. When I asked him how people
came to Wild Turkey’s premium brands, he tagged packaging as
a strong factor. “There’s always a recommendation factor,
that’s consistent through any category,” he said. “You get
recommendations from bartenders, friends and family. But
in-store, packaging plays a part in that; you look at the
shelf and see a good package. In the super-premium category
in bourbon, vodka, tequila, whatever, packaging is a big
factor in experimentation. Ultimately taste and quality will
keep you, but for that first taste, packaging can be a
strong contributing factor.”
New
Bourbon Drinker
Who are those
people who are experimenting, the New Bourbon
Drinkers?
“We have two
different names for them,”said Seiller. “There are bourbon
appreciaters, people who’ve been drinking bourbon for a
little while and have grown to like the taste of bourbon.
They started on a journey: Beam or Jack and a lot of Coke.
They come to appreciate bourbon and step up to Maker’s Mark.
As they start tasting the product, they continue to explore.
They may try a Knob, or Baker’s. Then there are the
connoisseurs. The people who actually taste the whiskey,
drink it on the rocks or straight. They appreciate the
craftsmanship. Knob is almost 5O/5O
connoisseurs/appreciatory.”
Nussbaum sees
some crossover in high-end. “There are new drinkers coming
to bourbon from other premium and super-premium categories,”
he said. “They’re guys who have been experimenting in
super-premium in better tequilas, for instance, and realize
that there is also diversity and quality in high-end
bourbon. You’re the kind of person who likes premium spirits
in general.”
“It’s people in
their mid-3Os who have gotten into their careers, they’ve
got a bit more money, and they’re transitioning from beers
to spirits,” said Comstock. “A lot of them drink vodka, but
bourbon is becoming more fashionable than it’s been. The
select bars, that fancy themselves as more specialized,
they’ll focus on bourbon, or rye whiskey. Our Sazerac Rye
and other ryes have been taken by high-end bartenders as
their own; they like rye and they’re making cocktails. Rye’s
a small category, but it’s very loud!”
What about the
women? Sam Seiller has an insider’s perspective on that one,
and she says don’t bring it up. “There’s not any conscious
move towards attracting women to the category,” she said.
“About a quarter of the people that signed up with our
Maker’s Mark’s program are women. But generally, the women
who do come over to bourbon do so because it’s a guy thing,
it’s different, it’s for hanging with the guys.” She
laughed: “If I put a pretty pink ribbon on it, I’d lose
them!”
Has
It Got Legs?
Bourbon’s found
new drinkers, new acceptance and (happily) new pricepoints.
Sales are continuing on a strong upwards slope after years
of decline and stagnation. The nagging question remains: how
long will it last? “I’ve been in the business 28 years,”
said Greg Snyder. “It is cyclical. The past 2O years were a
slow downturn, and it’s uphill now, so that should continue.
I hope it continues ’til I retire!”
Snyder also said
that there are people looking to get into the business. “I
get calls from people quite frequently now who are looking
for bulk bourbon, looking to bottle it,” he said. “We had a
Kentucky Distillers Association meeting yesterday and
everyone said people were looking for it. Ten years ago you
could not find a market for aged bourbon, now everyone wants
it.”
Wayne Rose sees
strong predictors in other categories. “I think the
super-premium segment is so under-developed compared to the
category in total,” he said. “Super-premium tequila does 14%
of total volume, single malts represents about 9% of Scotch
whisky volume. But super-premium bourbon represents only
about 3.5%. To me, that says that this segment is well
under-developed. I believe products like Woodford Reserve
are well-positioned to redefine the category the way
higher-end products have in other categories.”
Larry Kass sees
three reasons for optimism. “First, the engines driving the
category are broad-based,” he said. “The category leaders
are adding cases, sales, market, and on-premise
distribution, and you don’t get that with a fad. Second,
straight whiskey historically tends to have pretty loyal
consumers. Bourbon drinkers are bourbon drinkers. We see
this at whisky shows: the bourbon people taste bourbons and
the Scotch whisky people don’t.”
The
New Bourbon
Finally, Kass
alluded to the booming innovation in the category. “There’s
a ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet’ mentality in place,” he said.
“The bourbons have not been as active as, perhaps, some of
the other whisky categories and certainly not the other
spirits categories in new bottlings, expressions, products
that push the envelope. We’re doing more of that, like our
Bernheim Wheat Whiskey and Woodford Reserve’s Four Grain
Whiskey. This bodes well for keeping our people in the fold,
and attracting new customers.” (Wayne Rose said there would
be another release of Four Grain this fall, but that further
releases in the Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection were
still in development; no announcements or even leaks for
now.)
Kass backed that
up with the announcement of what is Heaven Hill’s rarest and
most expensive whiskey bottling ever: a very limited release
of Rittenhouse 21-year-old rye, coming this fall. “It will
be over $1OO a bottle,” Kass said. “It’s not out of line
with other whiskeys of that type; no reason it shouldn’t
command the price-point of those products.”
Buffalo Trace
has a whole program of experimental whiskeys going, some of
which are being released in one-time, very small quantities
of 4OO or fewer bottles as the Experimental Collection.
“We’ve got 15OO experimental barrels in our warehouses,”
said Kris Comstock. “Some are good, some are not so good,
but it’s a long process to find what’s best. It’s what drove
single malts 15 years ago: people want different, better
tastes. They want to see what’s out there. We’re catering to
that desire.”
Keep an eye out
for that experimental-minded customer. Know your brands and
be able to talk about them; that’s what they want to hear.
“It’s the notion of connoisseurship,” said Addison. “People
want to know about what they’re drinking. We see it in wine,
and bourbon is like wine in that way. There’s a story behind
the brands, and consumers are really interested in learning
that. They want to know what they’re drinking.”
That’s the New
Bourbon Drinker. It’s not just about the price; now,
finally, it’s about the bourbon inside the
bottle.
Who
Says Bourbon Isn’t “Mixable”?
Bourbon
distillers went through a period of anxious self-examination
about 3O years ago when they worried that their precious
spirit was slipping because it wasn’t “mixable”, a fear
caused by America’s shift to cocktails and highballs based
on white spirits. What we got from that was the horrible
aberration called “light whiskey” (which happily died a
speedy death) and an unfortunate lapse in cocktail emphasis
by bourbon makers. Luckily, bartenders picked up the slack.
Today, the bourbon cocktail is alive and well in Boston, and
the rest of the country is catching up, as is the rest of
the world, according to cocktail guru Gary Regan, author of
“The Joy of Mixology”.
“So much is
going down in the world of cocktails right now that my head
is spinning,” said Regan. “21st-century bartenders have
taken the craft to a whole new level. A new breed of
bartender has entered the scene. They are akin to Larry
Forgione and Paul Prudhomme, the guys who got the food world
talking back in the ‘7Os. They’re making cocktails that are
the equivalent of 5-star cuisine. The movement continues to
grow, not just here, but also throughout Europe, in
Australia and New Zealand.”
One of the most
passionate bourbon cocktailistas in greater Boston is
Patrick Sullivan, the owner/bar manager at the B-side Lounge
in Cambridge. “Bourbon’s made a big resurgence here,” he
told me. “We have about 6O different whiskeys – bourbon,
single malts, rye, and Irish – and people are well-versed in
the boutique bourbons. They’re an eager
audience.”
Don’t get
carried away on the boutique bourbons when you want a
cocktail, though. “We save the simpler bourbons for
cocktails,” Sullivan said. “The bigger, more complex
bourbons will either overpower a cocktail or lose their
complexity. But there’s always a guy who wants us to make
his Manhattan with an $18 bourbon. Well, okay, we’ll make
it, but we try to dissuade them. Those are best enjoyed neat
or maybe on the rocks.”
Sullivan and his
bartenders are passionate about cocktails. “We scour old
bartending books and revive long-forgotten cocktails,” he
said. That’s where they found their current favorite, the
Bourbon Smash (see recipes). They use Weller 7-year-old for
the house Smash. “It’s just terrific, a real bourbon
experience,” Sullivan said of the Smash, noting that the
folks at Eastern Standard restaurant in Boston had
introduced him to the drink.
Sullivan
believes in using different bourbons for different
cocktails, looking for just the right match. For instance,
he said, “we use Wild Turkey for the Kentucky Cocktail (see
recipes). The cocktail’s all about the balance between the
fruit juices and the maraschino liqueur and the bourbon, and
if the bourbon shouts too much, it overpowers the balance.
The Kentucky is another old recipe, but it’s very popular.
Girls who think they don’t like bourbon love it.”
I really set
Sullivan off when I asked him about rye whiskey. “Rye is the
best mixing whiskey there is,” he said. “Our house Manhattan
is made with either Old Overholt or the Sazerac
six-year-old. Rye is a much better base than a big bourbon;
bourbon can be too hot, it overpowers the drink. And the
Manhattan is the consummate cocktail. We proudly pour Old
Overholt, and we’re happy to tell people the history behind
the brand.” Sullivan uses rye in B-side’s Frisco Cocktail as
well (see recipes).
How do people
learn about these cocktails? From Sullivan and his staff.
“My barstaff are full-time, passionate professionals,” he
said. “They enjoy quality spirits, and they pass that along
to the customers. If someone asks “Give me what’s good,”
we’ll give them the best.”
You can’t ask
much more than that.
It’s
Tough Being Popular
“It’s an
exciting time to be in the bourbon category,” Trey Zoeller
told me. I’d spent a few days trying to track Zoeller down;
he’s a busy man.
Zoeller is the
main man behind McLain & Kyne Distillery Company, in
Louisville. He bottles three bourbons. “We have three
distinct flavors with each product, different with each one,
and all extreme,” he said. “Sam Houston’s a big boisterous
bourbon with traditional flavors, a bourbon man’s bourbon.
The Jefferson is very approachable, very easy-drinking,
light yet still flavorful. And the Jefferson Reserve is
elegant and complex, a multitude of different flavors, none
of which are overpowering: a great, enjoyable
drink.”
“We are a
sub-category of small batch,” he said, “we are VERY small
batch, only eight to twelve barrels per batch. We are able
to select the finest barrels, almost as selective as a
single barrel, which gives us great flavor and consistency.
It’s a very small family operation. We try to put our
signature, a little bit of ourselves, in every bottle. My
sisters actually hand-number each bottle.”
He agreed with
the bigger distillers that “from top to bottom, the category
is on fire right now. It’s a revolution that started with
small batch and single barrel bourbons,” he said. “As more
and more people are exposed, they find out what a great
spirit it is – great in cocktails and great on its own. If
you examine what goes into distilling and aging bourbon,
it’s more intensive and more expensive than you’ll find in
most spirits. As this boom is reached, you wish you could
‘rush age’, but you can’t. There’s no way to rush it.
There’s no process for speeding up the aging in the barrels,
none that works as well as nature, anyway.”
That’s the
problem for all the bourbon distillers, of course, but maybe
more so for Trey Zoeller. Trey’s a bottler, not an actual
distiller, much like Julian Van Winkle – or at least, like
Julian was until he did his deal for supply with Buffalo
Trace a couple years ago. Trey’s a bit more at the mercy of
the market, and that market is pretty merciless right
now.
“Throughout the
industry,” Zoeller concurred, “it is not as available as it
was. Some people say it’s a good problem to have! But we
have an agreement [with a distiller], and we’re
covered pretty well.
Zoeller wouldn’t
trade the booming demand for anything, even if it does keep
him scrambling. “It’s exposing people to bourbon,” he said.
“Back in 1998, when we started McLain & Kyne, we looked
at it as a renaissance of bourbon, waking up Americans to
how great bourbon was. For years, the high end of the
bourbon market was exported; we sent the best stuff to the
Japanese and the Europeans. Now American has caught up. And
this is just the beginning.”
If this is just
the beginning, Zoeller better buckle up. “Year to date,
we’ve about doubled our sales,” he said, then chuckled.
“Unfortunately, that’s not from a very large base! We don’t
have a large budget for advertising, the whiskey’s kind of a
secret.
B-Side Cocktail
Secrets
Patrick Sullivan very generously gave me the recipes for
some of the B-side’s whiskey cocktails. Enjoy.
Bourbon
Smash
Muddle 12 to 15 mint leaves in an ounce of simple syrup and
the juice of half a lemon. Add 2 ounces of Weller 7-year-old
bourbon and “one cube of ice, just to give it something to
bang around with” says Sullivan, and shake well. Strain over
shaved ice.
Kentucky
Cocktail
Pour into shaker with ice: 1.5 ounces Wild Turkey, 3/4 ounce
maraschino liqueur, and 1/2 ounce each of fresh lime and
pineapple juice. Shake and strain.
Frisco
Cocktail
Pour into shaker with ice: 1.5 ounces Old Overholt rye
whiskey, 3/4 ounce fresh orange juice, and 3/4 ounce
Benedictine. Shake and strain.
